Auto News 5

Finding it tough to curb your craving for V-8 power and prestige? General Motors knows your pain. To man up the lame Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon for 2009, the General blessed the engine roster with a new 300-hp V-8. The result is a mini muscle truck available in two body styles, each with a sticker price of well below $30,000. Take your pick between an extended cab with rear jump seats accessed via rear-hinged half doors and a six-foot bed, or a real four-door crew cab with a rear bench seat and a five-foot bed.

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Yountville, California

Gas prices have been as volatile as the stock market lately and experts assure us both will be rebounding, though nobody knows exactly when. Investing in the market now, though it might seem counterintuitive, could set you up for a handsome reward in the future. The same goes for buying a new fuel-efficient automobile. If you purchase a hybrid vehicle today, when demand for fuel-sippers is relatively modest, you'll probably end up getting a better deal on the car and you're also insulating yourself from future spikes in gasoline prices. Think of it as an automotive hedge fund, but without the sleazy Wall Street guys and enormous bonus scandals.

Months in Fleet: Nine
Mileage: 23,033

I'm willing to bet no Pontiac since the iconic 1959 Bonneville, the first of the wide-track, split-grill cars, has garnered so much attention and curiosity based on its appearance. People were literally circling the coupe in the supermarket lot trying to take it all in, and our parking attending was full of questions about what it was. "It's a, uh, Pontiac," I said. He stared back at me glassy-eyed.

The Camry is roomy, well-equipped, and has a very straightforward hybrid monitoring system for the driver. You can look at a needle swinging through a large MPG gauge, which also alerts you to EV mode. I honestly never engaged with this car, mostly because it was so overassisted and underdamped. The front end bobs and wanders, needing constant steering-wheel corrections. The Altima Hybrid weighs 200 fewer pounds, gets better fuel economy, and is a more satisfying car to drive.

The 2009 Toyota Venza has some lovely styling elements (like the character line that forms its broad rear shoulders) and some not-so-lovely elements (like the entire front end). Unfortunately, it has way too many of all of them. In fact, the last blunt-nosed, overstyled station wagon to use this many clichd styling cues was the Family Truckster - the fictional monstrosity purchased by that lovable idiot Clark Griswold in the 1983 comedy National Lampoon's Vacation.

We don't claim to know the personal histories of every auto executive, but it's doubtful few other corporate presidents grew up racing modifieds in South Africa. Johan de Nysschen smiles broadly as he remembers, "We gave those guys running small-block Chevys hell with used five-cylinder Audi 100s we brought down after they were done in the DTM."

Audi did it again. The company that set the racing world on its ear by launching a successful diesel racing program in 2006 just introduced its second-generation race car - the R15 - at the 12 Hours of Sebring, and won it all.

We don't claim to know the personal histories of every auto executive, but it's doubtful few other corporate presidents grew up racing modifieds in South Africa. Johan de Nysschen smiles broadly as he remembers, "We gave those guys running small-block Chevys hell with used five-cylinder Audi 100s we brought down after they were done in the DTM."

BMW has redesigned its roadster for 2009, and the change amounts to comprehensive maturation if not quite the obvious transformation from newborn Z3 to adolescent Z4. The new two-seater retains the name Z4, but it adopts two new model designations, the awkward sDrive30i and sDrive35i. You'll notice there's no M Roadster anymore, and word is that none is forthcoming. Nor will we see a return of the historically slow-selling hatchback coupe variant.

Arrived in fleet: Friday, March 13, 2009